Pakistan police baton-charge protesting lawyers

KARACHI, Nov 5 (Reuters) Pakistani police baton-charged lawyers protesting against the imposition of emergency rule by President Pervez Musharraf in the economic hub of Karachi early today, lawyers said.

Lawyers, who have been at the forefront of an anti-Musharraf campaign since he tried to sack the chief justice in March, have called for a countrywide strike against the enforcement of emergency rule.

''Police beat lawyers with batons as they came to the High Court in the morning. Many of them have been arrested,'' Akhtar Hussain, a former president of the Sindh High Court Bar Association told Reuters.